PageBox: application deployment with publish and subscribe on J2EE, JES2, PHP and ASP.NET PageBox
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PageBox for PHP

Presentation

PageBox for PHP is a version of PageBox written in PHP.

For more information about PageBox concept you can read:

The Presentation document

The Rationale document

The FAQ

Through PageBox for PHP implements the same concept as Java PageBox,

  • It cannot provide the same fine grained security as Java PageBox because PHP doesn’t implement sandboxes

  • It is simpler to install and use

  • It allows deploying any kind of file. When it receives a file, a PageBox can run a command for instance to populate a database

PageBox for PHP is the prototype of a new design that we also implemented in .NET

Roles

Host

PageBoxes deploy presentations. Users query presentations and presentations call Web services.

A PageBox host is not necessarily an ASP. On Internet it can be any host with a static IP address. On Intranet it can be any server.

The Application Server can be any Web Server configured with the PHP module.

The presentation can be in any format supported by the PageBox host, for instance:

  • IIS ASP

  • CGI

  • Java Web archive or any combination of servlets and JSP

  • PHP

In addition to presentations PageBox for PHP allows deploying any kind of file.

Repository

PageBoxes subscribe to repositories. Presentation providers publish presentations. The repository deploys the presentations on subscribing PageBoxes.

A PageBox repository is essentially a well-known point where:

  • PageBoxes subscribe to get published presentations

  • Presentation providers publish their presentations

PageBox repository is implemented as a set of PHP pages.

Presentation providers publish their presentation with HTTP POST file upload.

If a deployment fails (for instance because the PageBox host is rebooting) it is retried by a utility.

Presentation provider

The Presentation provider publishes presentations and files on repositories.

When the provider publishes a presentation or file it should also provides the URL of the presentation or file documentation.

Subscribers can display this documentation and decide if they can trust the publisher and if the presentation or file is useful for them. Subscribers can also use this documentation to learn how to configure their PageBox to install the presentation or file and how to use it.

Applications

Presentation closer to the user

PageBox for PHP has minimal requirements in term of disk space and memory:

  • An minimal Web server such as BadBlue (250KB)

  • PHP 4.0.6 and above (less than 1 MB)

Therefore it is possible to install a PageBox for PHP in remote offices (for instance in appliances).

Portal

Companies create corporate portals and Webtops. These environments provide to the employees most of the application front ends that they must use. A PageBox complements a Portal because it automates the distribution of front ends to Web services. Rather than developing and maintaining its own front end, a company can subscribe to the repository of a provider. When the Web service changes, the provider only has to publish a new version to update all portals.

Distributed applications

PageBox is a framework for the development of distributed Web Application.

We describe this capability in Distributed Web Application with PageBox..

Documentation

See the Installation guide to download and install PageBox for PHP.

See the Security guide for Apache configuration.

See the Customization guide for more information about the implementation and configuration files.

Contact:support@pagebox.net
©2001-2004 Alexis Grandemange. Last modified .